- September 27, 2022
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Economy
At the start of this month, doom-mongers looking for the next financial crisis in Europe were pointing at Italy. Just as the pessimists predicted, Italians have elected a populist coalition led by the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party. But a funny reversal has occurred. Italy’s economy seems provisionally stable. Britain has emerged as the weak power in Europe.
What gives? Intellectual fashion has been running against globalization for several years, so it’s easy to miss the answer. But the Italy-Britain inversion underlines an old lesson. Sacrificing some sovereignty and submitting to the rules of international organizations are not necessarily bad things. If the rules work reasonably well, doing so can be an advantage.
Despite junking the responsible government led by economist Mario Draghi, and despite replacing him with an unsavory populist coalition, Italy is in reasonable shape because of the European Union. However loudly the populists used…
